"This earth is mine" is a melodrama of its time.It pits the outsider against the clan ,the wealthy family:this was the story of "Giant" ,"The long hot summer" ,and mainly Minnelli's " home from the hill" -the users who have seen that one and King's "this earth is mine" will notice how Theron Hunnicut (George Peppard) and John Rambeau (a French surname!and with hindsight what a surname !)(Rock Hudson) look like each other.
This is not King's best or even among his best but it nevertheless helped build the big TV sagas ,for it is primarily a serial:there are many characters ,some of their parts are underwritten (John's mother for instance)and to tell all their stories would have taken four hours.
The most interesting side of "this earth in mine" is the part religion plays .We already knew that Henry King was a believer at least since he made " the song of Bernadette" ,one of the best Christian movies ever made ,beating all the numerous French attempts at their own game.In the present movie,it's through Claude Rains' character that he shows us his fascination for the rites:the little boy who once drank sacred wine and wanted to have a vineyard to give his wine to the Lord.If you read the Gospels ,wine is omnipresent from the marriage feast at Cana when Jesus turned water into wine till the last supper.His grandson ,when the movie ends,learned from his failure ,and while he works to save the place the old man used to love ,he is rebuilding his life too.(in the last sequence,Rambeau seems as solid as the proverbial rock -no pun intended- although the doctors said he would be crippled )
This is not King's best or even among his best but it nevertheless helped build the big TV sagas ,for it is primarily a serial:there are many characters ,some of their parts are underwritten (John's mother for instance)and to tell all their stories would have taken four hours.
The most interesting side of "this earth in mine" is the part religion plays .We already knew that Henry King was a believer at least since he made " the song of Bernadette" ,one of the best Christian movies ever made ,beating all the numerous French attempts at their own game.In the present movie,it's through Claude Rains' character that he shows us his fascination for the rites:the little boy who once drank sacred wine and wanted to have a vineyard to give his wine to the Lord.If you read the Gospels ,wine is omnipresent from the marriage feast at Cana when Jesus turned water into wine till the last supper.His grandson ,when the movie ends,learned from his failure ,and while he works to save the place the old man used to love ,he is rebuilding his life too.(in the last sequence,Rambeau seems as solid as the proverbial rock -no pun intended- although the doctors said he would be crippled )